Year 7, Day 181: Deuteronomy 30

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Today, Moses sounds utterly convinced that the people will eventually fail.  Honestly, I think this is because Moses is a good student of humanity and he knows what it is like to lead.  He knows that people eventually make mistakes and eventually mess up.  It’s just our human nature, and anyone who leads knows this fact.

Knowing this, do you hear the message that Moses proclaims?  Moses doesn’t tell the people, “It’s okay, do as you please.  God will love you anyways.”  No, that isn’t the message – although God certainly does desire to lavish His love upon us.  What Moses says is, “When you turn from your evil, God will be willing to forgive you.”  Only after the proclamation of repentance does Moses declare restoration.  That is highly important to remember.  There is an expectation of turning to the Lord.

Moses also tells the people that they are capable of doing the Law.  On the surface, I disagree with Moses.  If living a life without sin was possible, someone would have done it.  Paul teaches us that nobody can do it, not one person.  In that light, I have to argue with Moses here.

However, on a deeper level what Moses says is correct.  We are capable.  There is nothing in the Law that is intrinsically impossible for human beings to accomplish.  It isn’t though the Law is impossible, we simply are not able to consistently choose obedience.  Therefore, the issue is not with our capacity; the issue is with our desire.  We are capable of doing what the Law desires of us.  We simply lack the will to do so.

I love how Moses ends this chapter.  Choose life.  Choose obedience.  Choose to follow God’s ways.  Moses puts the emphasis exactly where it needs to be.  It is not a matter of capacity, it is a matter of heart.

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Year 7, Day 180: Deuteronomy 29

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Deuteronomy 29 really begins Moses’ wind-up to the finale.  This is a bit amusing to say, of course, because Deuteronomy is in itself a summary of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers.  Therefore, we’ve really entered into the summary of the summary.

As Moses speaks this chapter, I was struck by the realization that the adults who are alive at this point may have memories of the plagues in Egypt.  Remember that God promised Moses that they would wander in the desert for 40 years, just long enough to let all – save two, of course – in the rebellious Hebrew generation die.  It’s easy to think that all the people who left Egypt in the Exodus are dead.  But that isn’t true at all.  Only the adults who left Egypt are dead.  This new generation of adults, who are about to take possession of the Promised Land, were the youth and children of the Exodus.  These people saw the plagues, but they saw them through the wonder, amazement, and terror of the eyes of children.  I wonder if that isn’t part of what allowed them to remain faithful in God’s eye?

As I moved into that thought more deeply, I began to think of all the things they saw through the amazement of a child’s eye.  Of course, there are the plagues.  But there was also Moses on Mt. Sinai, the water from the rock, manna from heaven for forty years, the pillar of fire, the pillar of smoke, the parting of the Red Sea, and I’m sure a couple of things that I left off the list.  Imagine seeing all of that through the wonder of a kid.  Oh, there’s one more thing, a point which this chapter emphasizes more than other places in the Bible.  Their clothes never wore out.  I can’t imagine having a pair of sandals for 40 years and seeing them still function!  I can’t imagine having the same shirt, belt, socks, etc for 40 years and not seeing them wear out.  This is no small miracle.  I know how hard people – namely, myself – can be on clothing.  It never wore out.

I am flabbergasted by all of the ways that the people of that generation saw God’s handiwork.  They saw it like no other generation – except perhaps those who were alive to know Christ.  Yet, I know that they are called the wicked generation because they had this great witness and they still rebelled against God.

Except, of course, the children.  Their eyes caught what God was doing.  They were able to remain faithful.  They were awed by His presence.  They kept the faith kindled in their hearts.  Oh, to be like a child again in innocence and faith.

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Year 7, Day 179: Deuteronomy 28

Theological Commentary: Click Here

I’ll never forget one of the first lessons that I learned in my first Old Testament class in seminary.  My professor, Dr. Brooks Schramm, told us that when it comes to blessings and curses, the blessings section is always dwarfed by the curses section.  I think that there are some very good reasons for that.

As we look at this chapter, we do notice that the blessings section is fairly small.  Why can it be so small?  Does God really just enjoy cursing people more than He enjoys blessing them?  The answer, obviously, is no.  The reason that the blessings section can be so small is because human beings who are doing the right things in life don’t need to be told why they should be doing them!  If I have it in my head that I don’t want to lie, cheat, steal, or have sex with someone who isn’t my wife then I don’t need to be told why I don’t want to do those things.  I’ve already figured out my life is better when I don’t do them, so consequences aren’t necessary!  Instead, God can simply tell us that we will reap the fruit of our decisions in every facet of our life.

As we look at the curses section, we can understand why it is so long.  The curses section is written to warn people who are doing – or more importantly, who are contemplating doing – things that are contrary to God.  These people need to be told that such behavior is wrong.  They need to be told why it is wrong.  They need to be told how their life will be affected by doing such things.  It takes time to develop the ethics, the reason for the ethics, and the consequences in life for not having ethics.  It is necessary to do, but it takes time to develop all of that thought.

Before I leave this passage, I want to speak specifically about the Hebrew people and then broaden that out to a generalized perspective.  When we read Deuteronomy 28, we do get a sense that this chapter is prophetic in what will happen to the Hebrew people.  They do fall away.  They do get cursed with other nations, disease, famine, and the other things mentioned here.  Eventually, they do get plucked from the land by Assyria and Babylon and escorted away into slavery.  All of the promised laid out in this chapter do in fact come true.

I think this is a witness to all of human culture.  As human beings, our pattern is to forge a nation.  Out of that forging comes several generations of people with strong drive, strong ethic, and good morality.  However, the further we get away from that forging event, the further we also get from our ethics and morality.  Culture degrades into moral relativism.  People do what seems best in their own hearts, not what is best.  The cultures falters.  If it doesn’t correct itself, it fails and someone comes in to take over.

We can see this pattern all over the globe.  Obviously, the Hebrew people lived this out.  So did every dynasty in Egypt.  So did the Babylonians and Assyrians.  So did the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans.  So did all of the dynasties in China.  So did all of the dynasties in India.  The Holy Roman Empire did this.  The Ottoman Empire did this.  The British Empire has gone through many cycles of this.  I believe that the United States is going through a similar cycle.

The point to remember in all of this is that the more cultural relativism pervades – people doing what is right in their own eyes instead of adhering to a higher moral and ethical standard – the further we get into the faltering stage of a culture and the closer we get to sheer and utter failure.  I don’t believe we are there yet, but I don’t think one has to look too far in the daily news to see signs of cultural faltering occurring all around.

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Year 7, Day 178: Deuteronomy 27

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Year 7, Day 177: Deuteronomy 26

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Deuteronomy 26 is first and foremost a chapter about remembering.  We are to give back to God because the act helps us to remember how faithful God has been to us.  We remember that He does not abandon us.  We remember that all that we have was His to give in the first place.  We remember, and in so doing we find our place in His kingdom.

Second, this is a chapter about witness.  When we give, we are to give with a testimony.  We are to give a verbal accounting of God’s generosity.  Giving is not just an act of solitude but actually an act of community.  We give so that others may benefit from our witness, too!

Third, our giving is service.  So often we hear or think that the sacrifices were to be brought to the priests and the Levites.  So often people in churches use that as the excuse for making the church rich with large buildings and luxurious carpeting. But that isn’t actually how the giving described in this chapter was to go.  Notice that the gift could go to the Levites, but it could also go to the widows, orphans, sojourners, and the other people who had no defense or safety net.  We give, so that others may receive of God’s bounty.

In this act of service, then, we see that our act of remembrance is the start of the next person’s cycle of giving.  When we remember the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the defenseless we are giving them cause to remember God’s faithfulness to them.  We become the literal hands and feet of God’s generosity.

I like this system of giving far better than what I have typically experienced in the church.  The system of giving which I typically experience is one where I go to church, stick money in an offering plate, and then walk out feeling a pang of guilt relieved.  While I don’t want to say that it is wrong, that experience simply falls incredibly flat when compared to the rich cycle of hospitality and generosity that I see here in this chapter.  Speaking personally, sticking money into a plate that goes in front of me often quite impersonal.  Actually supporting an orphan and a widow and the poor is anything but impersonal.  It opens the door to perpetuate the faith personally, which is what we are supposed to be all about.

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Year 7, Day 176: Deuteronomy 25

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Deuteronomy 25 is one of those chapters that amuses me.  It amuses me because like so many of the chapters before, it fits into the “do the right thing” or “be fair” category.  But the situations discussed here seem almost absurd.

For example, take the teaching about the court case.  It absolutely makes sense that if two people sue each other, then the judge should be able to exact fair and appropriate punishment.  It also makes sense that the punishment should fit the crime and not be more than the person can bear.  We can get that from the teaching in this chapter.  However, it amuses me to hear the Bible say, “Don’t give him more than forty lashes, because then he will be degraded in your sight.  As if there is something more embarrassing about getting 41 lashes than 39!

Or, take the law about the marriage that doesn’t produce an offspring.  I can absolutely understand how this situation would come about.  Children often died in infancy or as a young person.  It would not be uncommon for a woman to have multiple children but many would simply not make it to adulthood.  I can see a situation where a man marries and dies before he can produce an adult heir.  I can see the case where the woman would want a son to continue on in the name, again remembering the ancient custom of woman and their inability to own land, etc.  What this law is about is making sure that the inheritance of the whole people of Israel stays the inheritance of the whole people of Israel.  This law is in there to prevent one person – or a small group of people – from taking over. But it seems so odd to our modern ears to her that a woman had the right to demand that their now deceased husband’s brother give her an heir!  It’s not wrong, mind you.  It just sounds odd on our modern ears with our modern understanding of love and marriage.

Or take the law about two men fighting.  Men know that there are certain unwritten rules about fighting.  There are places you don’t intend to injure.  There is more to this law than simply fighting fair.  In the context of this law, remember that we’ve heard frequently about the importance of a person being able to bring about an heir.  If a man is damaged and cannot bring about an heir, then we have a much greater problem.  This law is ultimately concerned not just with fairness in a fight but in a person being able to receive their God-given right of heirs and family.

Last, I’ll mention the law about two kinds of weights.  It seems silly to think of a merchant having two different kinds of weights.  However, remember that this was a day where electronic scales didn’t exist.  Standardized spring loaded scales didn’t exist, either.  You bought goods according to a balance, where a known weight was placed against the quantity being sold.  A merchant could cheat customers by using larger weights when buying and smaller weights when selling.  This law was incredibly useful, although it amuses me that human beings are so fickle that they could live with themselves being a cheat.  I know we can.  It happens all the time.  It’s just a shame that people have so little internal ethic.

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Year 7, Day 175: Deuteronomy 24

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Deuteronomy 24 continues the string on miscellaneous laws.  Again, I find that this chapter gives us laws that simply make sense.  If we just do the thing that makes sense and is right, there is no trouble in keeping the law.

For example, it makes sense that if a man divorces his wife and she has moved on to another person, why would he take her back?  Why would she even want to go back.  I’m a strong advocate of keeping marriage going and working through the rough spots together.  But if people do come to the place where they simply cannot imagine going one day more with their current spouse – especially in the case of infidelity as this chapter indicates – then be done with it and move along!  Why go back to a person that you left because they could be loyal and faithful in the marriage?

Another example is the law about letting the person who owes you money come out of their house and give you the debt as opposed to you going in to collect.  The reason it makes sense to not go in to collect is because you might see something else that the person owns.  Then you open yourself up to greed as you desire something of theirs.  You might ask for it unfairly, putting the person who owes you in a bind.  In the end, it is better to let those who owe you money bring it to you so that you are not tempted.

The laws at the end about leaving food in the field or on the trees for the sojourner also makes sense.  First of all, if we always claim every fruit of a plant, how will the plant ever reproduce to make new fruit?  Second, how will the surrounding nature – birds, squirrels, etc) ever be able to do their job and spread around the seeds to create a healthy environment?  That doesn’t even begin to talk about the true focus of the law, which is one of hospitality and care for the other person.  How will other people see us if we always take everything that we can as soon as we can and never leave anything for other people?  A society like that is self-centered and self-focused and erodes very quickly.

The law about the millstone also makes sense.  What is at the core of this law is a person’s ability to survive.  The millstone was used in taking grain and turning it into flour to be used for bread – one of the most basic of foods.  Saying that a person lost their millstone is essentially saying that a person has lost their ability to provide even the most basic of needs.  We should be able to collect what is owed to us.  At the same time, we should also be careful to whom we give a loan.  We should only give loans to those for whom it is reasonable to think they can pay us back.  Those who cannot pay us back should be given in charity, not in loan.

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Year 7, Day 174: Deuteronomy 23

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Deuteronomy 23 continues the pursuit of miscellaneous laws.  Most of these laws feels like they have simply been thrown together because they don’t really fit in well with the rest of the prior portions of the Law.  That’s a generically true statement.  They don’t particularly fit.

Within these laws, we do have an overarching theme that covers most of the laws in this chapter.  We can call this the chapter about keeping the holiness of the Lord.  Remember that holiness is a word that means “separate,” not “better-than-thou.”  Although, I don’t have any problem saying that the Lord is better than me.

For example, take these opening verses about eunuchs and males who are deformed in their sexuality.  They simply are not allowed to enter into the holy places of the Lord.  As I mention in the commentary I wrote six years ago, there is every reason to read this through the lens of the New Testament.  This doesn’t mean that God doesn’t love them.  It doesn’t mean that God will not have a good relationship with them.  All who seek the Lord will find Him.  What this is about is remembering that the Lord is separate.  He is holy.  We can’t come to God with a “whatever works” mentality.  We come to God with a mentality that is focused on God, God’s ways, and God’s holiness.  We come to God with a mentality that says, “Not my will but your will, God.”

I find this true in the passage about uncleanliness in the camp as well.  I love the line in Deuteronomy 23:14 that says, “Because the Lord walks in the midst of your camp…”  How easy is it to picture God as a far off God who doesn’t care about the intricate details of our existence?  That’s just simply not true.  He walks among us.  He dwells among us.  When we remember God’s holiness, we need to remember that this holy God is among us, dwelling with us.

In fact, if we take that and go back to the eunuch, we honestly have a better perspective on it.  The eunuch may not be able to go into the worldly place designated as God’s holy place, but that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t come to the eunuch!  God walks among us.  He walks among us all!

The last one that I want to focus on is the vows to the Lord.  If we make a vow to the Lord, then we need to keep it.  In fact, we need to not delay in keeping it.  Again, I think that this is about the holiness of the Lord.  If we generally love the Lord and desire to dwell in His holiness, then we absolutely should want to fulfill that vow.  We should not desire for our unfulfilled vow to come between us and a holy and righteous God!

In the end, there is a lesson we can learn here.  The Lord is holy.  The Lord does walk among us.  He does desire relationship with us.  We need to remember this and take this seriously.

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Year 7, Day 173: Deuteronomy 22

Theological Commentary: Click Here

I believe that this chapter can be summed up in five simple words: just do the right thing.  We have a series of disjointed laws.  But in each case, people doing what they would want done to them satisfies the law.

For example, if you see someone else’s property doing what it shouldn’t be doing, tell them!  At the very least, take care of it so the situation doesn’t get any worse until they come along and can fix it themselves.  After all, if something of yours was in danger and a person could prevent it, isn’t that what you would want of them?

Or, take the rule about putting a parapet around your roof.  In those days, rooves were places of relaxation.  If your friends came over, you would probably take them up to the roof to relax.  Doesn’t it make sense that if you are going to be entertaining people on your roof that you would want to have a little wall so that people couldn’t just randomly fall off the edge?

Then there is the law about men dressing up like women and women dressing up like men.  God calls it an abomination, plain and simple.  Mind you, that’s a very strong word.  But again, just do the right thing!  If you are a man, be a man!  If you are a woman, be a woman! Don’t make life more complicated than it already is.

The same can be said with the rest of the laws.  You don’t plow with an ox and a donkey because you’ll never go straight.  You don’t kill the mature female population of animals because that way you are doing your part to ensure their will be a food source for later generations.  You don’t put two kinds of seed in the same field because they will need to be harvested at different times and you’ll destroy the unfinished crop.  More common sense.

I find chapters like this refreshing.  So many people read the Law and walk away saying, “It’s too hard, who can live like that?”  Yes, there are some pretty hard teachings in the Law.  There are some ways in which it is easy for the typical human being to fail.  But at the same time, there are some parts of the Law that just make sense.  In fact, I would say that the vast majority of the Law are the kind of laws where if you just do what is right and stop being self-centered, you don’t really have much of a problem with it at all!

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Year 7, Day 172: Deuteronomy 21

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Deuteronomy 21 gives us another series of interesting and disjointed laws.  I don’t know that I have the space to talk about all of them here.  However, feel free to check out the link above if you want a more thorough discussion on each.

As I did read through them, my mind focused on two of the laws.  First, we have the law for the unknown murder.  God’s not dumb.  He knows that murders often occur by people who do not want their act observed.  God knows that within the heart of sin is a place that does not want the sin to be observed.  It is the fundamental essence of sin.  Sin knows that it is set apart from God.  It knows that it cannot stand the light.

However, just because sin is unobserved does not mean that it has no consequence.  Just because sin is unobserved does not mean that it doesn’t affect a community.  Sin always has a way of leaching into the people around us, even if it goes unobserved.  What God desires of us is that we take the time to recognize the unobserved sin around us and ask for repentance.  We might not be able to solve every case of sin, especially among those who wish their sin to remain hidden. But we need not remain blind to their effects.  We would be wise to remain vigilant instead.

The second law that I found interesting is the law for taking women as conquests in warfare.  Of course, we need to understand that this was an entirely different context in which women – especially women of conquered nations – had more in common with property than with being considered a civilian.  That is considerably different than with many modern countries, especially in the western world.  But I find it interesting that there are still rules governing this circumstance.  A conquered woman may be taken as a wife.  But the woman must be allowed to mourn her change in circumstance.  She must be allowed to mourn her loss of community and family.  After this time, she can become a wife to a Hebrew man.

However, it is possible that after watching a woman mourn for an extended amount of time, the man may decide not to keep her.  Perhaps he even feels guilt for what has been done and no longer wants to force himself upon her as his husband.  In this case, she must be set free.  She cannot be kept on as a slave or servant.  The woman must be set free to go and do as she desires.  Considering that we would speak of this overarching aspect of culture incredibly inhumane, we have a remarkably humane decision in the midst of the inhumane cultural dynamic.

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Year 7, Day 171: Deuteronomy 20

Theological Commentary: Click Here

In Deuteronomy 20 we have a chapter about warfare.  Naturally, this is a pertinent chapter for Moses to give as he prepares to die and Joshua prepares to lead the people into the Promised Land.  The people are about to experience much warfare.  They need to know the rules.

Moses gives the general rule first.  If you besiege a city, first make sure that they aren’t willing to take the easy way out.  See if they surrender.  In other words, don’t fight battles unnecessarily.  I think that’s a generally good practice.  If there is a way to get through a conflict where there is peace and you don’t compromise your own position, take that option first.  In this case, Moses tells the Hebrew people that cities in general who surrender are to become forced laborers to the Hebrew people.

However, Moses makes a simple exception to this general rule.  Of the cities in Canaan, they are to be utterly destroyed.  Nobody is to be left.  When we look at this, we need to remember.  The general rule above still applies.  However, the case of Canaan is a specific place where God Himself is bringing judgment.  It isn’t the Hebrew people that are planning to attack, it is God’s plan of judgment.  It is God who will give the cities over to the Hebrew people.  This is God’s war.  That’s why the general rule of besieging a city can be supplanted.  The Canaanites are to die because God decreed it, not because it’s generally okay to utterly destroy those who oppose us.

Finally, we have a neat little paragraph about the fruit trees around a city.  God doesn’t want the people chopping down the fruit trees to make siege works.  From the perspective of the big picture, this makes a ton of sense.  Fruit trees are one of the land’s natural ways of providing for the animals and people that live there.  When fruit trees are cut down, there is no way to get more fruit unless you plant more trees.  That takes years of cultivation to replace.  What that means is that the incoming population of your own people will have a harder time surviving because they have no trees from which they can eat fruit!  It makes sense to chop down the trees that bear no fruit and use them for siege works but leave the fruiting trees be.

In general, I think that there is a really good principle at work.  Whenever we are in a conflict with another person, don’t allow the conflict to destroy the resources around us.  We need to make sure that we are measuring the cost of our conflict. There is nothing worse than having a conflict that is so bad that when the winner is decided there is nothing left of any value.  In that case, the conflict was ultimately over nothing, and the conflict was truly pointless.  If fighting a battle will ultimately result in the destruction of everything around us, is the battle really worth fighting at all?

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Year 7, Day 170: Deuteronomy 19

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Deuteronomy 19 is a very interesting legal chapter.  We have disconnected laws.  They are nonetheless important.

First, we have the old laws about the manslayer.  I spoke about these back when we first heard them given in the Law.  As I read through this law in the context of today’s reading, what I was struck with was the difference between intentional versus unintentional sin.  Keep in mind, both have consequences.  Unintentional sin is still sin, and manslaughter is about as big of an unintentional sin as you can get.  Manslaughter still had dire consequences.  But manslaughter is absolutely different from murder.  One is premeditated with anger, the other is death by a mistake or thoughtlessness.  God truly desires to illustrate that sin has consequences, but not all sin carries the same consequence.

Next, we have the short laws on moving property boundaries.  Again, I think that we have a similar theme.  The thing about moving property boundaries is that it is deceptive and subtle.  It is certainly sin – stealing land is not yours.  But what makes it deplorable is that it is a sign that is committed in the shadows.  It is a sin of deception.  It is a sin that tries to get the better of another without the other realizing what is going on.  Mistakes happen.  But this is not mistake.  This is sin in the shadows.

Last, we have the law against the witnesses.  First of all, notice that one witness does not satisfy the Law.  From my experience with humanity, I think this is a good thing.  I have seen far too many people lie about a witness to get themselves or a friend off of the hook.  Granted, two witnesses can lie just as much as one.  But it takes more effort to get two witnesses to corroborate well.

However, what I find absolutely fascinating about this particular law is that we once more have a focus on intention of the sin.  A false witness is to be punished by the same punishment that was desired for the falsely accused!  In other words, a person who brings a fake case against another person would receive the punishment they sought for the other!  I personally think that this is a phenomenal idea.  There should be a punishment for wasting the court’s time and for damaging the character of an innocent person!  As we have seen, there should be punishment for all wrongdoing – people who do wrong and people who falsely accuse others alike!

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Year 7, Day 169: Deuteronomy 18

Theological Commentary: Click Here

There are three distinct parts to this chapter in Deuteronomy.  However, I believe them to be well connected.  The first and the last deal with the same general topic: spiritual leadership.  Anytime we have a topic sandwiched between similar ideas, that is a sign of importance.  The middle passage deals with the actions of the greater people.

Let’s start there.  God warns the people to not act like the Canaanites.  They aren’t supposed to practice child sacrifice, which many of the Canaanites did.  They weren’t supposed to consult the dead or the spirit realm when making a decision.  Most cultures – in one way or another – still do this, we just like to hide it and justify it and make it something it isn’t.    They weren’t supposed to tolerate fortune tellers and people who thought that they could predict the future.  Again, most cultures have some sort of future-teller.

The question becomes, then, if these types of things are bad and most cultured do them, how are the Hebrew people to be any different?  This is where the bookends of this passage come into play.  First, they are to ensure that their spiritual leadership is firmly established.  They want to make sure that the spiritual leadership is able to focus on teaching genuine spirituality by caring for their more mundane needs.  They need to allow the spiritual leader to place the spiritual leadership in the forefront where it ought to be.

Second, they need to realize that true spiritual leadership is not a function of the people’s election but rather God’s selection.  It is God who raises up leaders.  It is God who empowers them.  God is in control of who is granted wisdom to lead and who is not.  We as people need to look for those whom God has equipped and not the people that the world has elected as popular or powerful.

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Year 7, Day 168: Deuteronomy 17

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Deuteronomy 17 has a huge amount of foreshadowing in it.  Just about every way that the Hebrew people rebel in the rest of the Old Testament is covered by this chapter.  When we read the whole of the rest of the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 17 is the prefect lens.

For example, take the fact that the community is supposed to police itself.  I’m not saying that we need to turn neighbors into spies who scrutinize each other over the fence – although that is usually what happens.  What I am saying is that as a community we should be looking out for the well-being of one another.  We should be warning our neighbors when they are about to do something or make a choice that is bad for them.  As the Hebrew nation grew, people stopped caring about one another.  People stopped being concerned neighbors and started being hostile to one another and envious of one another.  When our communities break down, we’re in trouble.

Or, take a look at the next section of scripture.  In this section we are told that we should respect the decisions of the priests.  We are told that we shouldn’t work against what they say is right and just.  The priests were to be the spiritual backbone for the community!  They were to be that which kept it together.  However, how many times in the Old Testament are we going to read that the people did what was right in their own eyes?  We’ll read that in practically every chapter in Judges, that’s for sure!  When human beings abandon their leadership and focus in on their own life without concern for the greater good, we’re in trouble.

Finally, take a look at the last section.  When we do elect leaders, we need to make sure that they aren’t worldly leaders.  We need to make sure that they aren’t putting their faith and trust in amassed wealth.  We need to make sure that the reasons they are desiring to lead are just and upright. we need to make sure that they are not corrupted by foreign influences and foreign thought.  Think about what happens with David.  He marries many women.  Solomon sees this happen, and he marries hundreds more than David.  Solomon marries women of all different countries as a means of forming political alliances.  He becomes swayed by their foreign policy and their foreign religion.  Soon the kingdom splits and the kings fall into a downward spiral of poor and selfish leadership.  When our leaders stop valuing what makes us strong and begin to look to their own strength and their own thinking, were in trouble.

In the end, Deuteronomy 17 is a case against the story of the Hebrew people to come.  They will have moments of redemption and restitution.  However, in nearly every chapter in the Old Testament to come, we’ll find something that points us back to Deuteronomy 17.  There’s a lesson in there about the importance of applying Deuteronomy 17 into our life, too.

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Year 7, Day 167: Deuteronomy 16

Theological Commentary: Click Here

When I look at Deuteronomy 16, I hear a commentary on doing the right thing.  No, we don’t hear this advice in any one particular place.  This isn’t even a chapter commenting on morality or ethics.  Yet if we break it down, this chapter is simply about choosing to do the right thing.

We start by looking at the feasts.  Moses tells the people that they are expected to keep the feasts.  He tells them how to keep them.  He tells them when to keep them.  He tells them who should keep them.  He even tells them not to show up empty-handed.  They are expected.  One might even say that they are the reasonable obligations of the Hebrew people.  Moses point is simple.  When you are figuring out whether or not to go to the festival, make the right choice.  Do the right thing.  Live up to what is expected of you.

Then, we turn to the tidbit near the end of the chapter where Moses says to not expect bribes.  Again, do the right thing.  We all know that bribes cause people to overlook transgression.  We also realize that when (not if) word of a bribe gets out that the constituency will lose faith in its leaders.  Justice will suffer.  Communities will become fractured.  In the end, this can be avoided by just doing the right thing.  Don’t take bribes.  It clouds the judgment.

Finally, we hear the even more brief snippet about where to worship.  We are not to set up Asherah poles.  In other words, Moses is telling the people not to worship the gods who got the Canaanites into trouble.  When in doubt, make the right choice.  Remember that it is God who gets us out of the situations in our life and worship Him instead.

The advice of this chapter is simple.  When a challenging decision comes your way, sit down and ask a very simple question.  What is the right thing to do in this circumstance?  When we do the right thing, we seldom go wrong.

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Year 7, Day 166: Deuteronomy 15

Theological Commentary: Click Here

The theme of Deuteronomy 15 is generosity.  Again and again in this chapter we hear the message that we are to give to those in need.  We are to lend without expecting back.  We are to be willing to release our possessions into being the possession of others.  We are to give freely out of our herd and flock (or other material possessions, for those of us who don’t live in an agrarian society anymore).  This is especially true for those who serve us.

I want you to hear how strange this advice really is.  Think about common practice in today’s world.  I’ll give a few examples.  Employers give their employees exactly the amount due to them for the work provided and nothing more.  Many people go into a restaurant and calculate exactly 10% for the tip and no more.  Banks lend money for up to thirty years and never offer a grace period – much less a period of forgiveness.  Restaurants often weight their food before giving it out to make sure that they are not over-portioning according to their profit-margin.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not saying that any of the practices above are necessarily bad, and I’m certainly not saying that the practices I list above are evil.  They are common sense practices based upon the rule of fair exchange.  Two parties agree to trade quantities, often money and a particular good.  The agreement is then executed.  That’s how the world works.

But that’s not how God works.  God tells us to lend and not expect back.  He tells us to be generous when people leave our presence.  He tells us to give, knowing that we have already received from God more than our due.

This really is a challenging chapter when it comes to perspective.  I am sure God wants us to be good stewards.  Yet, I am also sure that God wants us to be generous with what He has already given to us, especially when dealing with the poor and those who have no advocate.  We need to keep both ideals in our mind as we go out into the world.

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Year 7, Day 165: Deuteronomy 14

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Today, there was a little snippet at the end of the passage that caught my eye.  It is the rule for a person who lives too far away to come and make sacrifices at the temple.  How are they to go and demonstrate before the Lord?

They are to go to the temple, but notice how long.  They are to go once every three years!  We are not talking about a great deal of sacrifice here.  Once every three years a person is to go and make sacrifices before the Lord.  They don’t need to go weekly, monthly, or even yearly.  What this tells me is that God is a God of relationship more than observance.  He would rather us do right and live rightly where we live than have our focus on making trips to come and fulfill our obligation before Him.  I’ll write more on this at the end.

Did you see how the people are to go, when they do come once every three years?  They are to take whatever offering they should give to the Lord and convert it into money.  They are to then bring the money to the place of the Lord because it is easier to carry.  Then, once they get to the Lord’s house, they are to convert that money into things to offer before the Lord.  Naturally these are things that the Lord has already said He accepts: oxen, goats, wine, grains, etc.  But there are two things here that caught my eye.  First, the people are free to buy whatever their heart desires.  Second, they are to buy it and celebrate before the Lord.  This is not a begrudging sacrifice where one loathingly gives a part of what they have.  This is a time of coming and celebrating before God and with God’s people about the great things that God has done in our lives.

As I indicated above, let me return back to the topic of obligation.  Now that we see the issue of sacrifices is not to be a burden but only a journey once every three years, what is the people’s obligation between those three years?  Moses tells the people that they are not to forget the Levite.  They are not to neglect the sojourner.  They are not to neglect the orphan.  They are not to neglect the widow.  Again, this tells me that God is more interested in our relationship with Him and how we care for the defenseless around us than He is concerned with our obligatory sacrifices.  He is far more concerned about the status of our heart and our community than the offering going into His coffers.

That’s a really neat perspective to find, especially in the Old Testament.  So often we think of ancient religions as appeasing the gods and doing obligatory sacrifices to keep them happy – or at least keep them from being angry.  That is not at all what we see here.  God is showing us, clear back as early as the time of Moses, that He sees the way we care for others as a part of our sacrifice for Him.  If we want to make Him happy, it isn’t about making some sacrifice or giving some monstrous donation.  Making Him happy is about showing love and grace and mercy to those who cannot protect or provide for themselves and who have no legitimate inheritance among us.

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Year 7, Day 164: Deuteronomy 13

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Do you ever coma across a chapter or a teaching in the Bible that catches you by surprise because of its severity?  Deuteronomy 21:18-21 is one such place for me.  There Moses tells parents that if their child is stubborn and refuses to listen that they should stone the child and be done with him.  Matthew 18:8-9 in another such place, this one among the teachings of Jesus.  This is where Jesus tells us to pluck out our eyes and chop off our feet if they lead us into sin.  Deuteronomy 13 is another one of these places.

In this chapter, we hear that if a person comes to invite us to worship other gods that we should get up and kill him or her!  Or, if there are people within a city who are inviting others to worship other gods that we should get up and destroy the city and assume all of its plunder for ourselves!  Perhaps even most striking, if even one of our brothers, sons, or daughters invites us to worship other gods we are to get up and kill them!

At times like this, it is really easy to stop and ask ourselves what happened to the God of peace, who loves all people, who is slow to anger and quick to forgive?  I don’t really mean that mockingly.  That is a serious question.  How can examples like these come from the same God who loved a fallen humanity so much that He sent His only Son to die for our sake since we cannot save ourselves?

What passages like these do is to highlight the importance of the concepts that lie underneath them.  It is vitally important that children grow up learning the skill of listening to their parents.  It is important that human beings understand how much what we see and experience influence our proximity to sin.  In this chapter, God wants us to understand just how much other people can exert influence into our lives.

When people we trust – the local prophets and wise men – come to us and speak messages to us, we are prone to listening to them.  We need to make sure that their messages are worth listen to!  When loved ones – brothers, sisters, children – come to us and speak to us, we are prone to listen.  We need to make sure that their messages are worth listen to!  When people in neighboring towns develop a particular habit or cultural expression, it often makes its way into the neighboring towns as we imitate one another.  We need to make sure that the people we imitate are worth imitating!

I don’t truly think that God desires for us to kill everyone around us who makes a poor suggestion about worship, just like I don’t really believe that Jesus wants us to disfigure ourselves when we see something that causes us to have a sinful thought.  What I think He desires is that we always take such things seriously and don’t let ourselves become swayed by their influence.

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Year 7, Day 163: Deuteronomy 12

Theological Commentary: Click Here

I think the heart of Deuteronomy 12 nails humanity.  Moses tells the people not to worship at the places of worship for the people before them.  Then he tells them to only worship at the place God designates.  Eventually he boils down the message very plainly.  He tells them not to follow the whims and wills of their own hearts - doing right in their own eyes - but to listen and obey God’s direction.

On the surface, this is absolutely a chapter about where to worship.  On the surface, this is a chapter about practicing our interaction with God.  But the real meat in the passage is deeper than this.  The real meat in this passage is about our human desires and laying them aside to instead submit to God.

I think that it is very poignant to bind the two concepts of worship and submission.  No, I’m not trying to say that there is only one place to worship God and that we should go back to animal sacrificing.  Jesus makes it very clear in the New Testament that such practice is not necessary.  Jesus tells the Samaritan woman that the time is coming when we will worship God wherever our heart finds itself.  In fact, even at the end of this chapter Moses himself makes a similar declaration.

Why I think it is neat to bind the concepts of worship and submission is because I think that the very first act of true worship is genuine submission.  I believe that in order to worship God, the first thing that I must do is to lay my desires aside.  I must come into the presence of God with a humble and contrite heart that desires to listen rather than assert myself.

That’s the part that I see the world and culture around me struggle with so mightily.  To confess, that’s the part that I struggle with so mightily as well.  Going through the act of worship is a rather easy task – especially when you have someone, or a group of someones, doing all of the work for you and you just have to sit or stand at the appropriate time.  Going through the act of worship is not difficult.  What is difficult is going through the act in a humble and contrite manner that seeks to listen and change more than assert and prove oneself.  That is what makes the worship of God true and different from any other experience we have as a culture.

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Year 7, Day 162: Deuteronomy 11

Theological Commentary: Click Here

I love the straightforward nature of Deuteronomy 11.  In this chapter, Moses is quite clear with the Hebrew people.  Observe the Lord’s command and prosper.  Make the Lord angry and His protection will go away.

I don’t know why we as human beings find this to be a difficult concept.  It simply makes sense.  When we show someone that they are important to us, we tend to have better interactions with them.  When we indicate to another person that they are meaningless to us, we tend to have worse interactions with them.  It’s simply not a hard concept to understand.  So why do we find this concept so difficult?

I’m sure there are as many answers to that question as there are people in the world.  But I’m guessing that much of the time – at least for me – it revolves around how much I care.  You see, if I don’t care about God and His ways, then I don’t really care whether or not my interactions with Him are favorable or not.  On the other hand, in those moments when I really need God and I want Him to care about me, I tend to pay attention to God and try to win His favor.

It isn’t that the concept is hard to understand at all.  It is my level of buy-in that changes.  I see the same thing in students, too.  Those students who enjoy my subject matter always come to class and do well.  Those students who may not enjoy my subject area but still value school in general also come into the class and find success.  Then there are those students who really don’t care about putting their best foot forward.  They stumble and fall, not finding success until their parents see their report card and start to punish them unless the grades improve.  Then, the students start caring more and the grades pull around.  But here’s the thing.  Even in those instances, I’m not fooled.  The turnaround isn’t because the student has started to care about school.  The turnaround is because the parent found something that the student does care about and tied the consequences of school to the consequences of whatever they do care about.

That brings me back to God.  He isn’t fooled by us, either.  There are people who genuine care about God and His ways because it is in their heart.  Then, there are those people who will only care when they need Him.  There are those people who will only give God their attention when something has gone wrong and they don’t care for the consequences.  We’ll see that time and time again in the story of the Hebrew people.  We see that time and time again in Western civilization, too.  But in the end, God is no more fooled than I am as a teacher.  God knows which people genuinely care and which ones only care until the consequences are less dire.

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Year 7, Day 161: Deuteronomy 10

Theological Commentary: Click Here

I’ve never noticed the order of Deuteronomy 10:10-12 before.  I’ve heard the passage and its iterations (see Micah 6:8 for the most famous one) before.  But I’ve never noticed the order as I did this time.  I've always focused on the first one in the list, fear, and then spoken about how the others stem from our fear of Him.  This time, I see the breadth of the progression.

Look at what Moses puts first.  The fear of the Lord.  This really isn’t a surprise.  Elsewhere in scripture we are told that it is the fear of the Lord that is the beginning of wisdom.  What can we do with respect to God until we have learned the fear of the Lord?

Next, we are told to walk in His ways.  This also makes sense.  How can we possible walk in His ways if we have not first learned to fear Him?  Walking in God’s ways is the natural outcome for fearing the Lord.

Third, we are told to love God.  This might seem strange, especially in today’s love-crazy world.  We might ask ourselves why loving the Lord shouldn’t come first.  To counter that, I would argue against the world that I cannot truly and deeply love what I don’t know.  I couldn’t love my spouse until I had gotten to know her a good bit.  The more I get to know her, the more my love for her increases.  What is it they say?  If you want to love a person, walk a mile in their shoes?  That’s exactly what Moses is saying here.  As we fear God, we walk in His ways.  As we walk in His ways, we learn to love God.

Fourth, we are told to serve.  Naturally, this makes sense.  How can we possibly serve if we don’t truly love?  In my mind, that’s the difference between slavery and servanthood.  Slavery is working because of the power held over you by another.  Serving is working out of the love you have for the other.  We serve God only when we love Him.

Finally, we keep His commandments.  As we fear God, walk in His ways, love Him, and serve Him we finally realize that we are keeping His commandments.  When we do these things, we get to the fifth one!  I think this is a fabulous progression, and a new approach for me.

Finally, I think that it is important to her the advice that Moses gives to the people after he finishes speaking to them about what I discussed above.  Moses says to them, “Circumcise your hearts.”  He doesn’t tell them to do something physical.  For me, this is proof that God cares more about the state of our hearts than he cares about the stuff we do.  He cares more about our relationship with him than He cares about where we worship, or what version of the Bible we read, or how many times we fast in a week.  He cares about the condition of our heart.

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